NIU baseball (15-25, 4-14 MAC) dropped a 14-6 game against the Illinois State University Redbirds (19-19, 9-6 MVC) on Wednesday in Normal, Illinois, splitting mid-week matchups after defeating Valparaiso University on Tuesday.
The Huskies went down early, conceding 5 runs to the Redbirds in the first inning.
Redshirt senior pitcher Zach Hise started on the mound for NIU, allowing 4 hits and 5 runs while striking out on Redbird in a single inning of work.
Junior pitcher Gavin Micklinghoff pitched three scoreless innings out of the bullpen to keep the Huskies in the game early, allowing 1 hit while striking out two.
NIU remained scoreless until the fifth inning, when the offense came up with 5 runs to bring the game within two. Senior outfielder JP Gauthier capped off the scoring with a 3-run long ball over the left field fence. The Illinois State transfer now has 9 RBIs in his last six games, moving to third on the team with 31 on the season.
The Redbirds gained 1 run in the sixth inning, before a 4-run seventh inning put them in double digit scoring.
NIU scored one in both the eighth and ninth innings, coming from sophomore catcher Cooper Cohn and junior catcher Logan Gregorio respectively. Cohn’s single in the eighth brought home senior outfielder Gavin Baldwin, while a double by Gregorio sent freshman outfielder Jalen House home in the ninth.
Gregorio leads the Mid-American Conference in RBIs with 53, while ranking second in doubles with 16.
Gregorio was the only Huskie with multiple hits on Wednesday, going 2/4 with 2 hits and 1 RBI.
UP NEXT
The Huskies return home at 3 p.m. Friday at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park to start a three-game series against Western Michigan University. The game will be streamed on NIU All-Access and live stats will be updated on SIDEARM Sports.
